BlizzCon Opening Ceremony liveblog
At 11 a.m. Pacific, BlizzCon will be kicking off with its opening ceremony. If you're new to the BlizzCon experience, the opening ceremony is where we'll be hearing an announcement for the next World of Warcraft expansion as well as any announcements Blizzard may have for its other games.
The live blog is over. Look for more liveblogs as the day continues.
12:05PM Silly internet in convention centers.
12:04PM Garrison update failed! Players will be able to build/upgrade their own garrison. Could this be player housing?
11:58AM Worth noting no mention of new classes or races
11:56AM And we're done! That level 90 boosting needs a lot more clarification...
11:55AM Level cap is 100 as expected
11:54AM New world: Draenor, New models, boost to 90 and play immediately
11:52AM Looking like we'll get some time travel
11:51AM Warlords of Draenor is official!
11:49AM I believe the conflict to come will be the Alliance's finest hour -- says Metzen
11:47AM Alliance love from Metzen, 'the Captain America faction"
11:46AM Draenor mentioned... what with the earlier 'oops' it's looking bad for The Dark Below
11:40AM WoW news coming up as Metzen takes to the stage
11:38AM Talking about a lot of firsts in WoW in context of the movie...
11:36AM Warcraft Movie talk incoming, Southshore vs Tarren Mill up on the screen.
11:33AM Second half of next year (2014) for both those new platforms
11:32AM ... and Android!
11:32AM Hearthstone will also be coming to iPhone
11:31AM Golden Heroes will be earned in the new Ranked Play mode
11:30AM Huge ETC animation and guitar overlay on your hero when he's played
11:30AM Battlecry is to summon Power Chord cards
11:29AM The virtual ticket card reveal is coming right up... Elite Tauren Chieftain 5/5 golden legendary
11:28AM Hearthstone playable on tablet here at Blizzcon
11:28AM Hearthstone goes into open Beta next month
11:25AM Rob Pardo takes the stage!
11:24AM Beta signups for Heroes go live today!
11:23AM All the maps are playable at BlizzCon today, so watch this space!
11:22AM "Battlegrounds" being discussed, appears that you can earn resources to get powerful NPCs on your side, on most maps!
11:20AM Alpha game play for Heroes looks incredibly slick, high quality graphics and textures. Lots of recognizable characters from every franchise! I'm calling Illidan!
11:16AM Dustin Browder takes to the stage to talk Heroes
11:15AM Crowd going crazy as Diablo, Kerrigan and Tyrael appear in the video!
11:14AM Heroes of the Storm video!
11:10AM The crowd is really happy about the removal of Diablo III's Auction House,
11:09AM Lots of talk about e-sports and what we can expect this weekend from StarCraft, WoW and Hearthstone
11:02AM And we're off, it's Mike Morhaime!
11:00AM Heavy emphasis on the community nature of the weekend. Bring on the announcements!
10:59AM Hype is palpable in the hall as the presentation begins
10:55AM Five minutes to go!
10:52AM Hall D has quite some Naniwa fans!
10:48AM Waving at you all from the front row if you are watching the stream! 11 minutes to go...
10:36AM Looks like the virtual ticket is required to watch a lot of today's streams
10:34AM What are we expecting? DirecTV speculating about The Dark Below versus Warlords of Draenor.
10:30AM First use of the word epic within minute 1 of the convention!
10:29AM DirecTV preview is underway!
10:22AM Several Blizzard devs already spotted in the crowd. Cell networks are starting to not work thanks to the sheer number of people in here.
10:14AM Every time there's a pause in the music there's an almost tangible increase in excitement
10:13AM So what's the prediction? Press area aren't buying The Dark Below.
9:59AM Hall is really filling up and we still have an hour to go until the ceremony starts!
9:41AM We're in! The stampede of people to get to the opening ceremony in hall D was a bit crazy, but it's calmer now and the hall is filling up. Now we wait...
